ATLANTA — The approach for Jose Valverde is simple: It’s not about the process, but the result. Ninth innings like Tuesday night only reinforce it.

That it took six batters and 25 pitches and one white-knuckle fly out to the warning track in center field to get through a scoreless inning was almost irrelevant.

The Mets had won, after all, a 4-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves, and Valverde had finished it off.

To focus on the in-between, on what happened from the time he took the mound to the time Jason Heyward’s well-hit ball landed in Juan Lagares’ glove a few feet in front of the wall was not to be discussed.

Instead, Valverde, the Mets new closer, focused only on the festive end.

"It’s out," he said. "It doesn’t matter how. The only point is my team win. That’s it. Not so much if it’s 20 hits. If my team win, I’m happy."

Before the game, the Braves unrolled a red carpet from the center field wall to the infield. They lined it with fans and unveiled their 2014 team with a level of pomp befitting a garish awards show.

The Mets, meanwhile, stood along the third-base line, watching and waiting to leave the field, having been introduced first to serve as fodder for the crowd.

Then, on a night the Braves surrounded the park with all kinds of celebrations, Colon (1-1) distilled it all away.

Over seven innings and 101 pitches, he gave up six hits and struck out five. Atlanta’s hitters could not clump enough together to score a run. A loose-swinging bunch fell into the control of a pitcher who feeds off impatience.

"He was really, really good tonight," manager Terry Collins said. "He pitched in, pitched out, pitched down, pitched up. Really gave them a different look no matter what he was throwing."

Still, the Mets needed all of it. Over the first six innings, they could only manage a run. Aaron Harang (1-1), a journeyman who signed with the Braves just last month, quelled the Mets’ bats. He struck out nine, playing up the early rash of strikeouts that has overtaken the Mets.

The only run against Harang came in the third inning when he uncorked a wild pitch with two outs and two strikes on David Wright. Ruben Tejada, who had walked and advanced to third, scored.

Tejada, maligned all spring, bumped up his average to .286 as he went 2-for-3 and drove in two runs as the Mets profited off the Braves’ bullpen in the seventh and eighth innings.

That left the ninth for Valverde. It is his role now that Bobby Parnell, the planned closer, is out for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery Tuesday in New York.

Yet, Valverde’s night quickly turned rocky. He let two runners on with one out and when it looked as if he had a parachute out of trouble — a meek ground ball back at him from Andrelton Simmons — he turned and threw wide of second base, loading the bases.

With this, Valverde took a moment to center himself, standing still a few feet behind the mound while the Braves’ tomahawk cry piped in over the Turner Field speakers. A four-run lead looked shaky with the tying run at the plate.

But Valverde forced Gerald Laird to pop out to Daniel Murphy, then ran the count full with Heyward.

On the seventh pitched of the at-bat, Heyward drove a 93 mph fastball into the sky. Valverde thought only of the stadium’s spacious grounds — 400 feet to dead center — and the defensive acumen of Lagares. When the ball landed in his glove, it was the finish he desired.

The outcome, Valverde reminded, was the only thing worth talking about.